Currently, many portable devices are available for a variety of applications. Digital imaging devices, such as digital cameras, are used for capturing images. Once the image is captured, the user may wish to download the image to a desktop computer. The user may also wish to provide the image to friends or other individuals.
Some conventional portable devices, such as personal digital assistants (“PDAs”) are capable of performing functions such as email. Such portable devices can send and receive email messages remotely, for example via a modem coupled to a cellular telephone. Often, attachments are associated with email messages. For example, a sender utilizing a PDA or a desktop computer may wish to send a file associated with a particular application to a recipient. Such files can include EXCEL or other spreadsheet files, documents formed using a word processing program and images.
For example, FIG. 1 depicts a high-level flow chart of a conventional method 10 for providing sending and receiving messages having attachments via email. A user of the sender (e.g. a PDA or other computing device) types in a message and adds one or more attachments to the message, via step 12. Step 12 also typically includes the sender (the PDA or other computing device) encoding the attachments and adding the encoded attachments to the end of the message. For example, one encoding scheme that is currently used is MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions). MIME encodes the attachment as text. Typically, a message using MIME encoding includes the text of the message itself, a MIME header for each attachment, and the text encoding for each attachment. The MIME header for a particular attachment is typically followed immediately by the text encoding for a particular attachment. Thus, a typical email message with attachments includes the text of the message followed by a header and encoded text for a first attachment, a header and encoded text for the second attachment and subsequent headers and encoded text for each subsequent attachment.
Once the message is completed, the sender sends the message including the encoded attachments to a server, which is typically an SMTP email server, via step 14. After receiving the message, the server sends the message to the recipient, via step 16. The recipient can be a PDA, a desktop computer or another computing device. If the user of the sender requested multiple recipients, then the server will send the message to each of the recipients in step 16. The recipient receives the message and, once received, decodes the message, via step 18. Thus, the message is received before the recipient decodes each of the attachments. In order to decode the attachment, the recipient reads the message. As the recipient reads the message, attachments are detected by detecting the presence of MIME headers. MIME headers typically include the name and a type designation of the attachment. Based on the name, the type designation, or both, the recipient determines the type of the attachment. The recipient also decodes the attachment from text into another form. The recipient can then accurately display the attachments to a user of the recipient and allow the appropriate applications running on the recipient to utilize the attachments.
In addition to the above-mentioned conventional devices which can send and receive email, the assignee of the present application has constructed a portable digital imaging device which is capable of sending email. FIG. 2A depicts a high-level diagram of a digital camera 30 in accordance with the teachings of the assignee. The digital camera 30 includes a control application which, for the purposes of sending email, is an email application 32. The email application 32 interfaces with an operating system 34 that controls lower level functions of the digital camera 30. The email application 32 also interfaces with the user interface (“UI”) 38 which may be some combination of an LCD, soft keys, and a directional button. Also depicted as part of the digital camera 30 is a modem 36. However, the modem currently used is preferably not integrated within the digital camera 30.
Only the email application 32 is depicted in FIG. 2A. However, the digital camera 30 could be capable of operating using other control applications (not shown) in lieu of the email application 32. In such a case, the control application used may be selected upon booting up of the digital camera 30. In order to select other control applications, including the control application which allows the digital camera 30 to capture images, the digital camera 30 is rebooted with another control application. In another case, multiple control applications may be run without rebooting the digital camera 30. The email application 32 is preferably provided with sufficient code to perform networking functions, controlling of ports or the modem 36 and interfacing with a server which is used for email traffic.
FIG. 2B depicts the digital camera 30 as coupled to a server 40 which may be used for sending email. The server 40 includes an email server process 42. The email server process 42 may include multiple server process. The email server process 42 controls the server's 40 reception of email, connection to the internet 50 and sending of email to the appropriate recipients. The server 40 connects to the internet 50 and can send messages to the recipients 52 and 54. The recipients 52 and 54 may include PDAs, desktop computers, laptops, or other computing devices.
Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, a user of the digital camera 30 might provide a message and/or select images for emailing. When the user selects an image to send with the message, the image is typically an attachment to the message. The user of the digital camera 30 also indicates the addresses for one or more recipients of the email message. Typically, these functions are performed using some combination of the LCD screen, soft keys and directional buttons of the UI 38. The email application 32 then controls linking with the internet 50 via the server 40. The email application 32 also includes code which allows the digital camera 30 to interface with the email server process 42. The email application 32 thus sends the message and attachments, which may be encoded as discussed above, to the server 40. The email server process 42 can then control sending of the email messages to the appropriate recipients, such as the recipients 52 and 54. Thus, the email application 32 for the digital camera 30 interfaces other software and hardware within the digital camera in order to allow a user to send email. Thus, using a portable digital imaging device such as the digital camera 30, a user can send email, including images.
Although the method 10 and portable digital imaging devices, such as the digital camera 30, can allow email traffic including attachments to flow between senders and recipients, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily realize that there are drawbacks. In particular, attachments are often expensive to send and receive and can unnecessarily consume power. It is currently possible to send and receive email via PDAs. It would be desirable to receive email messages, including email message having attachments, on a portable digital imaging device such as the digital camera 30. However, attachments are typically significantly larger than the messages to which they correspond. Consequently, messages having attachments take significantly longer to send and receive. For portable devices, including portable digital imaging devices such as the digital camera 30, long send and receive times are undesirable for many reasons. A user of the digital camera 30 may be using a cellular telephone in order to connect to the server 40. Use of a cellular telephone is very expensive and typically increases as the telephone is used longer. Thus, performing email functions using the digital camera 30 may be quite expensive. Furthermore, the digital camera 30 has a power supply which is limited by the charge of the battery used in the digital camera 30. It is, therefore, desirable to extend the life of the battery. Because sending and receiving attachments requires a large amount of time, battery power is consumed by performing email functions. In addition, the digital camera 30 may recognize only a small portion of the types of attachments that are possible. For example, the digital camera 30 may recognize and be capable of displaying and using a variety of image attachments, but may not be capable of recognizing, displaying and using other types of attachments such as word processing files. Thus, attachments which may be unusable, which require a large amount of time to download and which consume battery power during downloading may be provided to the digital camera 30 via email. In addition, attachments also increase the traffic over the already busy internet 50.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving the efficiency of email exchanges via a digital imaging devices. The present invention addresses such a need.